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HEALTHFUL 
FARMHOUSE 



By A Farmers Wife 



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' While washing dishes ... A' look past the dining table with its 
flotoers, and through the wide door to the living room beyond." 



THE 
HEALTHFUL FARMHOUSE 



BY A FARMER'S WIFE 
HELEN DODD 



With an Introduction by 

ELLEN H. RICHARDS 




WHITCOMB & BARROWS 

BOSTON, 1906 



< 









LIBRARY of COWGRESS 

Two Copies Received 

NOV 16 1906 

1 Copyright Entry 
CLASS /\ XXc, No. 
COPY B. 



COPYRIGHT, 1906 
HY ELLEN H. RICHARDS 



06-4571$ 



COMPOSITION \NI> BLBCTROTYPING BY 

1 Hi IM VS ' 

14 beacon Street, boston, mass. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 

Introduction. By Ellen H. Richards v 

Foreword ..... i 

Chapter I. The Kitchen 4 

The range — the sink — cupboards — arrangements of tools 

— floor — furniture — walls — care of it all — dishwashing 
and care of milk tools. 

Chapter II. The Shed 17 

How to clean it up — painting — drain for washing water — 
how to make it safe — passages — cupboards — back porch 

— milk room. 

Chapter III. The Cellar 26 

The need of a cellar — its supply of air for the house — 
how it should be made — how to make an old cellar safe — 
how to keep vegetables. 



Chapter IV. Ventilation 

Need of definite provision — top outlets — open fireplaces • 
cross draughts — window screens. 



Chapter V. The Dining Room 

"A place for everything " — floor rugs — dish closets — set- 
ting the table — care of linen — the comfort in daintiness. 

Chapter VI. The Living Room 

Large and light — fireplace — furniture — floor — wall paper 
— curtains — all fit for their uses — care of it. 

Chapter VII. Bedrooms 

Simplicity — cleanliness — easily moved fittings — floor — 
furniture — bedding — airing. 



37 



43 



49 



IV 



THE HEAL I I ! I I I I \ KM HOUSE" 



Chapter VIII. Hails. Stairways, and Bathroom . . 53 
Heating and airing — care — rearrangement of halls — sug- 
gestions for inexpensive farm bathrooms — need of baths — 
beneficial results. 

Chapter IX. General Scheme of Living .... 59 
Living among good things — little formalities — influence on 
children — useless housework — balance between pride and 
backache — living outdoors. 

Chapter X. The Opportunity of the Consolidated 

School. Bv Ellen If. Richardi 66 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



Through the wide door to the living room . . . Frontispiece 

A convenient arrangement of dishes and tools . . Facing page 6 

Hot water within easy reach ..... Facing page 14 

The easiest way to set an attractive table . . . Facing page 38 

The green bedroom ....... Facing page 50 



o 



INTRODUCTION 

jNE of my earliest recollections is of my father's reply 
to my mother's anxiety lest we should get overturned 
in the sleigh on the snow-drifted country road. He said, 
"Where any one else has been, there I can go." For ten 
years we spent the month of March, after his winter school 
was over and before the spring farm work was begun, visit- 
ing relatives in New Hampshire and Vermont ; and during 
that time I remember but once when his confidence was 
not justified. 

"What others have done, that I can do," is not a bad 
working motto. Adventurous spirits go beyond this and 
do what has never been done before; but the average 
farmer's wife cannot run too many risks, nor can she take 
time to undo, when the to-be-dones press so hard. 

Herself brought up on a farm, having done everything 
that has to be done indoors or out, except milking, the 
writer knows very well the old farm spirit, and has depre- 
cated the spirit of the present generation. It often seems 
as if our young people everywhere fail of that inner sight 
which carries one in safety over the most perilous places, 
as one may cross a stream on a slender plank if one looks 
only at the other bank. 

In daily life we are crossing streams all the time, with 
our eyes on the future and with hope and faith on either 
side leading us safely. 

Encouragement rather than criticism we all need in the 
hard tasks of the daily life. Especially is it needed on 
the farm, now that so many of the interesting manufactur- 



VI THE HEALTHFUL FARMHOUSE 

ing processes arc taken from it. I well recall the excite- 
ment of candle making — a long, hard day's work, which 
blotted out for the time the detested drudgery of dish- 
washing, which never stayed done. 

It would be a pleasure to help in the infusion of new 
thoughl into the life of the young people; to make them 
see the charm of country life when lived for the sake of 
living, and not for the sake of making money to spend 
elsewhere than on and for the farm. J. P. Mowbray's 
" Return to Nature," C. Hanford Henderson's " Education 
and the Larger Life," E. P. Powell's "Country Home," 1 
various other books, and a score of magazines have been lay- 
ing before us the possible delights of rural living. But there 
is usually a wide gap between the ideal set before the 
reader and his actual circumstances. 

Therefore I have asked a farmer's wife who has been 
over the road to tell how she and her husband have done 
it, to give courage to others to follow the same road. It 
needs courage and knowledge and faith. It needs an aim 
to achieve — a goal in the mind's eye. 

I\n miles from a railroad, on the sunny hillside of an 
old faun that had inherited the collections of many genera- 
tions of hard-working farmers, this household has had its 
own problems to solve. 

It is true that the farmer and his wife have had advan- 
of training and association with other kinds of life, 
that they have acquired ideals in other surroundings ; but 
that makes their lesson a more valuable one for those who 
find themselves longing, yet fearing, to forsake the bustling, 
wearing life of the city, with its grinding treadmill giving 
only just enough for board and clothes, and to adopt the 
freer, more restful life of the soil. 

In popular literature on the subject of the farm home 

J See also, Roberts: The Farmstead, Chap. I. 



INTRODUCTION Vll 

the demands seem to be for a new site, with clean soil and 
newly constructed buildings. But the seekers after advice 
usually have old buildings on long-occupied sites, and, 
moreover, are much hampered by local traditions of both 
craftsmen and neighbors. 

The woman is not supposed to know anything about 
construction or about drains or paints or machines. There 
are unreasonable and ignorant women on the farm as well 
as in the city, but that is no reason why this generation 
should continue in blind adherence to tradition. The 
world moves; some things are found out; and there is 
a possibility of an interested spirit in the housewife and 
mother, even though her work is never done. She can 
learn what things are done because in that house and in 
the neighbors' houses they always have been so done, and 
what things are essential. 

Farming as market gardening is one thing ; farming two 
hundred miles from a metropolis is another. 

Resources in one's self, in books, in art, in the doings of 
the great world without, are requisite ; also, a possibility 
of abstraction of thought, so that the mechanical opera- 
tions of dishwashing, sweeping, and dusting may go on 
unconsciously while the mind is busy with plans for the 

future. 

Ellen H. Richards. 





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Dining Room and Kitchen as Rearranged 

This plan should be used with Chapters I and V. It makes clear the position of t , 1 1 > 1 ._• , 
sink, stove, etc, shown in the illustrations facing pages G and 14. 



FOREWORD 

THIS book is written for the average farmer's wife, 
from the point of view of one who does all her own 
cooking, dishwashing, sweeping, and laundry work, yet 
runs a lawn mower and cares for the flower beds about 
the house, and does much work in the vegetable garden. 
It may help, too, on the large and prosperous farm, but 
the woman who needs it most is the one who, without 
"hired help," is responsible for the health and happiness 
of her farmer husband, her children, and herself. 

Any woman who reads the magazines nowadays is 
convinced that simple living, a real home, an atmosphere 
of beauty and happiness are the inalienable rights of 
every child ; and every farmer's wife wants them for 
herself. By making a bright and happy spot for the 
children, you add to your husband's living and tempt 
him to enjoy it, too. 

Those of us who have lived in cities, who have 
studied and worked at professions, and who have come 
back to live sincerely on a farm, stoutly insist that the 
farm is the best place to make this happy, healthful 
life, full of beauty and truth, in spite of the hard work 
and many responsibilities. The farmer's wife, working 
alone, has the best opportunity in the world for bringing 
up her children in the ideal atmosphere. 1 

But how can she do it ? No one woman can hope 

i Roberts: The Farmstead, Chap. III. Powell: The Country 
Home, p. 23. 

1 



2 THE HEALTHFUL FARMHOUSE 

to accomplish all the things she sees about her waiting 
to be done. There are always so many duties waiting 
that she is likely to fret all the time she is sweeping or 
washing dishes because she isn't doing her mending 
or cleaning the attic ; the time spent in baking seems 
wasted when she thinks how much sewing she could 
accomplish in a morning; the daily sweeping does not 
seem half so necessary as weeding the garden. 

" But this way madness lies ! " 

The plain duty of every farmer's wife is to " keep 
her balance," to open her eyes to the conditions about 
her, 1 to question every act and every bit of material 
within her control, to decide whether this is safe or 
necessary, to say to each process in the housework : 
"Is this necessary? Does it satisfy me or my pride, 
or is it done to please my family, or because others 
have done it ? Docs it really fit our farm life, or 
would my husband prefer fewer pies and better citizen- 
ship in his boys as they grow up? Does my husband 
enjoy better an immaculate house and a tired, discour- 
aged wife, or a house in sanitary condition, full of happy 
busy-ness, and a wife keen to enjoy the children and the 
interests of the farm ? " 

So the aim of this book is to point out the dangers 
of the old houses and show the most necessary elements 
in right living, and to help those starting on a new plan 
for housework by the experiences of one who has tried 
it. A farmhouse is always different from other houses, 
even village houses, because it is more than a dwelling ; 
it is the heart of the farm, the beginning and the end 

1 Richards : The Art of Right Living, pp. 27, 4S. 



FOREWORD 3 

of every day's work. The interest of the work in every 
field, as well as its dirt, comes into the house with the 
workers, and upon the healthful ness and the happiness 
within and about the house depends the welfare of all 
the family. The principles of sanitation most necessary 
in farmhouses, and the changes suggested in the follow- 
ing pages, have all been accomplished without hiring 
skilled "artisans," with the exception of carpenters on 
a new shed and a plumber on a new sink trap. The 
great need is for real intelligence in every day's work, 
and sufficient skill to make tight and smooth joints 
everywhere. Any strong woman can remove entirely 
old wall paper, old paint, and dirt, and replace with 
new paper, clean paste, new paint, or kalsomine. 



CHAPTER I 

THE KITCHEN 

\I7HEN we talk of the kitchen we mean the woman's 
▼ V workshop; that is, the place where food is pre- 
pared and cooked and where the dishes are washed. If 
you have a big, old-fashioned kitchen, dining table at one 
end, with rugs and mirror and rocking-chairs, and per- 
haps a sewing machine and telephone, you have a real 
kitchen — the workshop at the other end, with its cook 
stove, sink, cupboards, and cooking tools. It gives a 
man a comfortable feeling to step into one of these bi^ 
old-fashioned kitchens on a winter night and sit in a 
comfortable chair by the stove while the supper is 
being "dished up"; but if he ever had to sweep or mop 
that big kitchen floor, if he measured the distance a 
woman walks in "doing up the morning work" in it, 
he'd build a smaller kitchen at once! So study the 
kitchen end, and call the rest dining room, or living 
room, as it really is. 1 

The first consideration is the cook stove or range. 
It ought to be a good one. for while cooking the food it 
must heat all the water for bathing, dishwashing, and 
laundry work. It need not he a high-priced steel range, 
but it ought not to be a cast-iron stove loaded with 
leaves and wreaths and nickel parts full of rough 

1 The Country Home, pp. 43-4 \. 
4 



THE KITCHEN 5 

places, holes, or pockets to catch whatever boils over. 
The most economical range for the average farm is a 
moderate-priced steel range. Even the small ones have 
big enough ovens, hot-closets, warming shelf, and, most 
important, the hot-water reservoir at the fire end. This 
makes it possible to heat quickly a quantity of water 
without changing the oven dampers or interfering with 
its baking. Then, too, these new steel ranges have per- 
fectly true tops, light covers, and most of the exterior 
is planished steel, with smooth, nickel edges, which is 
never blackened, only washed to keep it bright. Their 
greatest value, however, is in their economy of fuel, the 
large, smooth flues with asbestos linings holding all the 
heat and keeping it steady. Between fifty and seventy- 
five dollars will buy one to fit any farm. Those that 
cost less are small, or poorly made. The large sizes are 
often too high for a short woman to work at, so be sure 
you choose the right thing for you. If the top of the 
range is too low have it set at the right height, and have 
the space between it and the floor covered in with care- 
fully fitted and painted boards. Leave no cracks for 
dirt or water to find. Such a range will last twenty or 
twenty-five years without repair, if not abused, and is 
a good investment. Any tool or appliance that saves a 
woman daily annoyance or makes the work easier for 
mind or back is worth all it costs. Increased efficiency 
is looked for in every bit of farm machinery, why not in 
the kitchen ? l 

"From the cook stove to the sink," is the pathetic 
path of a New England woman, and on most other 

1 Clark : The Care of a House, pp. 34-43. 



6 THE HEALTHFUL FARMHOUSE 

farms, too. Is the sink near the range ? Is the sink 
just high enough ? Don't stoop over any work. Have 
a stool just the right height to use at the sink, and it 
will save many a backache and dizzy spell, besides being 
a factor in the real economy of a strong woman's work. 
In this day of cheap enameled ironware, no one should 
struggle with an ugly and dirty iron sink. If an iron 
sink is really clean it rusts ; if it looks black and smooth, 
it feels greasy and a dish set into it carries a mark to 
the table. An enameled iron sink or a soapstone sink 
can be easily kept as clean as a polished table, and costs 
very little more than an iron one. But whatever its 
material have an open space underneath. Nothing but 
the pipes and drain-pipe trap should ever be under the 
kitchen sink. If the sink is as near the stove and table 
as it ought to be for your convenience, it will not be the 
place for everybody to wash faces and hands. Nothing 
is more annoying than to have to serve dinner with 
several people trying to wash right in your path, and 
nothing is further from real cleanliness than the water 
that spatters a long distance. The sink is to wash 
dishes in, not men. Take the wash basins and tooth 
brushes entirely away from the room where food is 
prepared. 1 

If you will keep your kettles in a cupboard have 
it built at one side of the sink. My kitchen has no 
cupboards. The big kettles — those seldom used — 
are kept in a cupboard in the shed. It is best to 
have the shelf for the heaviest kettles just knee-high ; 
it saves much lifting. 2 

1 Home Sanitation, pp. 59-61. 
2 The Farmstead, pp. 232-235. 




^ 



THE KITCHEN 7 

The walls are painted a soft, light yellow, and 
against the wall about the range hang, on brass hooks 
or wooden pegs, iron and steel spiders, gridiron, toasters, 
dishpans, drainers, and kettles of blue and white enamel 
ware. Above and around the sink are more blue and 
white ware — saucepans, double boilers, strainers, col- 
ander, graters, potato masher, lemon squeezer, etc. — 
all near enough to the range so they are hung up 
as soon as scalded. It seems a waste of time to put 
such things over the stove to dry, then later walk 
with them across the kitchen to a pantry to put them 
away. 

Near the sink, just opposite the range, is the 
kitchen table, a wide, fixed shelf, and above it are 
racks and hooks to hold all the kitchen cutlery — 
knives, forks, and spoons of all sizes, egg beaters, 
nutmeg grater, corkscrew, skimmers, funnels, chopping 
knives — all the tools for cooking. Above these are 
narrow shelves for spice boxes, seasoning herbs, tea 
caddy, and any materials that can be kept in a warm 
kitchen. A modern kitchen cabinet that will hold 
all these things can be bought for twenty dollars. 
A farmhouse kitchen should have one, unless a " handy 
man " can build for you such racks and shelves for 
your tools as you want there. With shelves built 
over the table, and bins or boxes for flour, grains, 
cereals, and other supplies built against the kitchen 
wall and painted with it, you can have quite as great 
convenience and often better use of your valuable 
kitchen space, for you must plan above all things to 
get your kitchen work into a small space for the sake 



8 THE HEALTHFUL FARMHOUSE 

of saving in cleaning and time, as well as saving steps. 
If you follow the old plan of pantry, buttery, cold 
closets, cupboards, dish cupboards, and all, study your 




No water can run under the wood box 



ZOOOC? st/-LZ> 



COOOCt \s& 




Linoleum fitted against the wall-, page <? 

work to see if you can't economize in space. Don't 
have pantry shelves wide and far apart, with a few 
small things or double rows. Have shelves to fit the 



THE KITCHEN 9 

things to be placed on them ; put everything just 
within your reach where you use it most ; and by 
having a place to "just fit" every tool or box you 
will find it easier to keep things in order. Many 
a farmhouse kitchen could be successfully rearranged, 
so that the work would be easier. 

The best floor surface .for a kitchen is, undoubtedly, 
linoleum. Its first cost is too great for any but 
a small kitchen or a large pocketbook. It wears well 
and is always easily cleaned by mopping. It can be 
bought in any width, so that even a large kitchen can 
have its floor covering in one piece. It is sufficiently 
flexible to be fitted up against the wall over a wood 
strip, so that an absolutely sanitary floor is possible. 
It is thick enough to be warm, and is easier for the 
feet than any other floor surface. 

Oilcloth of good quality, and full width of kitchen, 
can be used in the same way ; but precautions must 
be taken to make it fit well, and to make perfectly 
water-tight joints in the corners, or every mopping 
will send water into the crack to rot the oilcloth and 
wood and leave its residue of germs to make trouble 
sometime. Its surface wears out soon, and the worn 
places should be painted as soon as they appear. 1 

A soft wood floor, carefully laid, of narrow boards 
and painted is the cheapest and most satisfactory floor 
for the one who has to care for it. The Georgia pine 
and spruce sliver quickly, and do not wear well unless 
"rift" boards are used; but North Carolina pine and 
hard wood (maple, or birch, or oak are best), if cut two 

1 The Care of a House, pp. 222-229. 



10 IIII. HEALTHFUL FARMHOUSE 

and a half inches wide, will make a floor that will stand 
without warping or splintering. A hard wood floor, 
however, is costly, if laid well, and is a great disappoint- 
ment often, because if oiled it will surely turn black 
unless protected by waxing. Painted floors need watch- 
ing and repairing of worn spots ; but if the floor is well ' 
laid, the corners and edges well fitted, and the paint 
of good quality, it is the best surface to work on, and 
the easiest to keep clean and in good repair. 

Woolen rugs should not be found in the kitchen 
unless frequently washed; not "wiped off," but put 
into a tub of scalding hot suds. A perforated rubber 
door mat that lets water and dirt through is better to 
stand on at the sink. 

The kitchen walls, whether of wood or of plaster, 
should be painted. A good light paint (not ugly drab, 
or blue, or red) reflects the light so that one can see 
well in any part of the kitchen, and resists smoke and 
dirt much better than wall paper. The light paints 
have more white lead and are much more durable than 
the darker colors, which are mostly pigment and crumble 
off in a hot room. Paint may be wiped off easily with 
a broom covered with a damp cloth, and is made abso- 
lutely clean and fresh by scrubbing with a soft floor 
brush and warm water, with sal soda. This, by the 
way, is the best way to clean paint ; a brush with sal 
soda solution takes off more dirt and less paint than 
a cloth and gritty soap, besides being much easier on 
the hands and back. 

There should be as little movable furniture in a 
kitchen as possible. Two stools, one high enough to 



THE KITCHEN I I 

use at the sink, one lower, and a low wood box or coal 
box, covered to make a comfortable seat, would be 
enough. The more chairs you have, the more they 
are left in the way and you have to sweep under them 
or lift them. 

Prepare your vegetables on the back porch, if the 
weather permits, or at the sink, or on the wood box 
seat, but have your rocking-chair in the living room, 
and go there when you want to rest. 

A good kitchen table is necessary ; but unless the 
kitchen is large a fixed shelf, twenty to twenty-four 
inches wide, with grain bins underneath, is better than 
one with legs. The top of a kitchen table is most 
attractive if of well-scrubbed pine. White oilcloth on 
this is easier to keep clean, but have a care for the 
corners ; fit it up against the wall at the back and 
down over the edge in front. Watch the possible leaks 
everywhere. But scrubbing a kitchen table top need 
not be a hard task. Paint everything else. If the 
vegetables are cleaned at the sink or on a painted 
shelf, and the meat is cut on its own board and all 
scraps are kept picked up, the nice white table top 
will go with one scrubbing and scalding a week. Never 
wipe it with a greasy or soapy dishcloth ; a clean cloth, 
sal soda, and occasionally sand soap and boiling water 
are what it needs. Most soaps leave a disagreeable 
odor, and should always be rinsed out of dishes, clothes, 
or wood with plenty of hot water. 

In the kitchen the "stitch in time saves nine." 
If a little dirty spot is left it accumulates more dirt, 
and soon it doesn't seem worth while to clean it up 



12 THE HEALTHFUL FARMHOUSE 

until the floor is washed or "until cleaning day"; 
but if each spot on the table or floor or stove is 
removed at once with hot water or sal soda in water, 
the whole place is kept clean all the time. 

When you come to cleaning day clean wisely rather 
than too well. Don't spend all your energy in black- 
ing and polishing the stove and scrubbing the table. 
Look into the corners; see if the water runs under 
the baseboard or down the pipes. Where does it go ? 
I low can you prevent a vile collection of scum and 
smell in any such crack? Boiling water will kill 
germs if it is still boiling hot when it reaches them, 
but remember that floors and walls will cool it quickly. 
Don't be content with merely cleaning those parts 
that show. The dirt that is really harmless, that 
can't get into the food or pollute the air, should wait 
until the harmful dirt is removed. The gray spots on 
the hot cover of the stove hurt no one, but spilled 
milk in a crack or on unclean utensils can. 

The washing of milk tools is generally done in 
the kitchen, and it is better to be near the supply of 
boiling water. See that all pails, cans, and the sepa- 
rator are flushed with cold water as soon as emptied. 
The "separator scum" is easily removed in cold water, 
and is very offensive when mixed with warm water. 
Then scrub them with a large, stiff-bristled brush and 
hot water, with sal soda (one pound to twenty gallons 
of water, or about one ounce — a heaping tablespoon- 
ful — to one gallon); then rinse in hot water and 
scald, or pour plenty of boiling water into each pail 
and over each part. Don't pour from one pail to 



THE KITCHEN I 3 

another and call that scalding ; use a fresh supply 
of boiling water for every one. Nobody's round- 
ended fingers and a soft cloth can clean the cracks 
and corners of the separator parts or the big surfaces 
of pails and cans as well as a stiff-bristled brush. It 
is really easier, and quicker work, too. But get a 
good brush ; the difference between fifteen and thirty- 
five cents isn't great, and the cheap bristles soften in 
hot water. If enough boiling water is used all the 
utensils will dry themselves after draining a minute. 
Stand them on a broad shelf on the south side of the 
house or in the milk room window where the sun can 
get inside, not bottom up. Be sure it is grassy 
around the shelf ; a dusty road will do more harm 
than the sun can correct. Unless the tools are per- 
fectly free from dust they should be rinsed and scalded 
again before using. 

After handling milk tools this way for some years 
it was gradually forced on my mind that this is about 
the best way to clean anything. Painted woodwork, 
windows, cut glass dishes, iron and tin cooking uten- 
sils, all are washed cleaner and with less fatigue with- 
out the use of any, or very little, sand soap by using 
hot sal soda suds and a brush, clean, hot, rinsing 
water, and allowing them practically to dry themselves. 
Several shape's and sizes of brushes are always at 
hand — a good, big, stiff one for milk tools (shaped 
so as to reach every crack of pail or can) ; a small 
one with a short handle on its back for scrubbing 
potatoes ; a small one with a long handle for glasses, 
silver, and dishes with handles and knobby tops ; one 



14 THE HEALTHFUL FARMHOUSE 

similar, but stiff, for scrubbing the table top, a floor 
scrubbing brush for woodwork, painted shelves, etc. 
Most of these cost five or ten cents, are easily dried 
and sunned, and are much pleasanter to work with, 
are easier on the hands, and do much better work 
than the gray or brown bad-smelling old rags used to 
"clean up round the sink." They had better hang 
outdoors in the summer time and near the stove where 
they will dry in the winter. 

If the creameries and dairy inspectors demand such 
care of milk tools, why shouldn't we use the same pre- 
cautions for the dishes we eat from ? The food of the 
family is the fuel which supplies human power ; take 
time to make it wholesome whether the front hall is 
dusted or not! Dishes should be carefully "scraped," 
and if plenty of running water is at hand many of them 
had better be rinsed first in cold water. Wash them in 
hot suds. Sal soda and soap make a better suds and 
cheaper than all soap, especially in hard water. Then 
rinse them immediately in boiling hot water. It is not 
sufficient to pour hot water over them. If a dish is 
washed in lukewarm, not really clean water, and allowed 
to dry ever so little, it will be sticky and smell of dish- 
water. Boiling water will not remove greasy suds after 
cooling. Have water too hot for your hands in a sec- 
ond dishpan and pass each dish directly into it when 
washed. It will drain dry in a few minutes, and if hung 
up in a dish-drying rack, so as not to touch the other 
dishes, it need not be wiped. This process is a great 
improvement on the old ways of washing dishes, and 
a great saving of time for the woman who works alone. 




•*, 



"^ 



THE KITCHEN I 5 

The dish towels that wipe only scalded dishes need less 
washing and wear longer. Wiping dishes after a wash- 
ing in hot, clean suds alone is tolerable only when a 
second person stands by to wipe each dish directly after 
it is washed, and then the soap must be rinsed out of 
the towels. 1 

QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER I 

1. Is your range the right height for you to work 
at comfortably ? 

2. Does it heat water without taking away the heat 
from the oven and with a reasonable amount of fuel ? 

3. Is your sink near the range and at just the 
right height for you ? 

4. Is the space under the sink open and clean, 
showing the pipes and trap ? 

5. Is the sink furnished with a tight drain which 
will carry the drainage away from the house, instead of 
depositing it under the windows to become offensive 
and possibly cause disease ? 

6. Have you a table or fixed shelf on each side of 
your sink for stacking and draining dishes ? 

7. Is the kitchen table near the sink and the 
range ? 

8. Are all the cooking materials and tools near the 
kitchen table and also near the sink ? 

9. If any are kept in a cupboard, could that be 
moved nearer to your table and sink ? 

10. Are the tools hung on separate hooks or kept 
in distinct places of their own ? 

1 For more comprehensive schemes of plumbing than are outlined 
here see The Care of a House, pp. 43-47, 131-138, 16S-180; also 
The Farmstead, pp. 212-217. 



I 6 THE HEALTHFUL FARMHOUSE 

ii. Is every tool where you can easily reach it 
without hunting in drawers or dark cupboards ? 

12. Is the floor of hard wood, or painted, or cov- 
ered with linoleum? 

13. Is there any furniture in the kitchen that you 
do not need ? 

14. Is there a convenient stool and seat to use 
while doing tedious work ? 

1 5 . Are the walls painted or whitewashed ? 

16. Do you have plenty of hot water for dish- 
washing ? 

17. Do you rinse or scald off the soapy water from 
cray fhiug you wash ? 

18. Are the milk tools washed immediately after 
using, scalded, and sunned out of doors? 

19. Is all garbage and waste water removed 
quickly from the kitchen ? 

20. Are flies kept out of the kitchen and away 
from food and every utensil ? 

21. Have you a convenient place for the men to 
wash, so that they need not use the kitchen sink ? 



CHAPTER II 

THE SHED 

ON most farms there is a long list of rooms, pas- 
sages, sheds, and separate outbuildings that are 
not part of the house and do not belong to the barn. 
When a thing is "too dirty to come into the house" 
it is left in the shed — rubber boots and fur over- 
coats, milk cans and washing tools, soiled clothes and 
other unmentionables crowd each other in a dark, 
untidy place. It is a country the men folk do not 
respect and the women folk despair of cleaning up. 
What is to be done with such a place ? The tidiest 
housekeeper knows some spot "out back" she is 
ashamed of. The best way often is to destroy entirely 
the old buildings and build a clean new "ell," with 
a small summer kitchen that serves as laundry too, a 
woodshed used for nothing else, an open walk or 
passageway, and an isolated milk room, with wide win- 
dows and shelves on the south side for sunning the 
milk tools. Farm machinery, carriages, and garden 
tools should not be under the house roof. 

If you must go on using the old shed make it 
reasonable ; don't live with one you are ashamed of. 
A new window or two, even small old ones, may be 
put into the dark side of the shed, and give a surpris- 
ing amount of light, besides much better ventilation. 
Take every boot, rubber, overshoe, old coat, and other 

>7 



1 8 THE HEALTHFU] FARMHOUSE 

garment out into the sunshine ; clean them and decide 
which are possible for wear, and throw the useless 
rubber things into a barrel for the next peddler. 
Burn the rest. Collect the washtubs, wringer, wash- 
ing machine, etc, and let them stand outdoors a while. 
Put the good bottles with the preserve jars for ketchup 
and pickle time ; gather the hopeless ones for the ped- 
dler. Put away or destroy everything that is not used 
at least once a week. Sweep down the dust and cob- 
webs, pull out rusty or broken nails, and sweep the 
floor. Then take a pail of clean-looking, light-colored 
paint (good ready-mixed paint can be bought for $1.25 
or $1.35 a gallon, according to the price of oil), and 
paint. 

Paint the walls, the window sashes ; paint " every- 
thing in sight." Paint the underside of every shelf you 
need (rip off the others). Use the paint thin enough 
so that it will run into the cracks of your old boards, fill 
the cracks behind the shelves, and run down into the 
cracks at the floor. Then paint the floor (a light brown, 
yellow ocher, or dust gray). The smell of the turpen- 
tine will drive away every fly and every bug and every 
ant that threatened you, and rats won't like the taste 
of the corners. 

When the paint is dry put up a tew strong hooks 
lor coats, overalls, and such things near the door, and 
some brass hooks under a shelf on the other side of the 
door to hold lanterns ; make a tidy arrangement of 
starch boxes, soap, etc, on the painted shrives, an orderly 
row of washtubs, bench, etc, on one side, and some 
bright, clean windows on the other ; and you'll find no 



THE SHED l<j 

more bits of harnesses, nor dirty boots, nor ill-smelling 
garbage pails will be left close to your kitchen door ! 
Paint is the greatest help to the housekeeper. One gal- 
lon, with some added turpentine, would renovate a big 
shed of the roughest possible boards, and such painted 
boards are easily washed with a broom ; the paint is a 
good disinfectant, too. No farmer's wife ought to 
spend any of her precious strength scrubbing a shed 
floor, yet she wants a clean place to do her washing, 
and two coats of paint make a very rough old floor easy 
to clean. 

But is the shed floor tight ? How much water has 
been spilled there since you have known it ? Where 
did it go ? What is the condition of the dirt under- 
neath ? Does it never smell sour or musty ? Do the 
planks rest on the ground or are they up on beams, so 
that plenty of air can circulate underneath ? A sandy 
or gravelly soil sloping enough to drain will soon be 
found sweet, if plenty of air can blow through under 
the floor. 

If there is such an abomination as an old wooden 
slop hopper in the shed or near the door, the only 
thing to do is to rip it up and burn it at once. 
A convenient place to empty the washtubs and slop 
water must be provided, but don't use an old one. 
Wood absorbs anything left upon it — water, milk, 
oil, or grease — and before being used for drains and 
hoppers must be painted. A shed drain ought to run 
out into a long, wooden trough that can have one end 
moved occasionally, that the water may not saturate 
the ground in any one place. The wood for the 



20 THE HEALTHFUL FARMHOUSE 

trough and hopper should be "filled" with preserv- 
ative or good paint on all sides before being put 
together, then painted again after finishing. There 
are several " wood preservatives " on the market. The 
cheap ones are a kind of tar paint ; the good ones are 
made of creosote. Such a trough that empties itself, 
exposed to the open air and sunshine, can be called 
sanitary. Don't cover it, and don't let the ground 
get soggy. Keep shifting it, and you will find a rich 
growth of grass will follow it. If water has been 
poured out on the ground at the back door and the 
surface of the earth has become hard packed (even 
moldy or mossy on the north side sometimes), see to 
it that no more water is ever thrown there. Scatter 
a liberal dose of chloride of lime on the ground, and if 
you don't like the smell shut the doors and windows 
on that side. Then have all the soaked dirt thor- 
oughly spaded up (it won't take long), and leave 
it in lumps for a week. By that time the sun and 
the air will have worked on the soil sufficiently to 
enable you to "work it"; that is, break up the lumps 
with a hoe or a rake, and smooth it off. This will 
make the finest flower bed you have ; scarlet runner 
beans, poppies (if it is sunny on the south, or pansies 
if on the east or north side), dahlias, and mignonette 
will make a beauty spot out of an eyesore. If you 
don't care to plant the flowers, sow some white clover 
and June grass seed, ami you will haw a dainty lawn. 
Red clover will get ahead of weeds quicker than 
anything else. 

But whatever else you think of improving about 



THE SHED 21 

your house, tackle the sink drain outlet and the place 
where slops are thrown first. The worst smelling drain 
outlet is fit to work about soon after scattering chlo- 
ride of lime ; and a man or boy ought to be willing to 
spade for you if he knows that a rich crop of clover 
for calves or hens will be the result. Plant some- 
thing as soon as the ground is worked. Tomato 
plants will take a great deal of filth out of the ground 
even if they produce no fruit. 

Passageways are dangerous and usually unnecessary. 
Often it is better to tear out a partition and take the 
passage into an adjoining room. You won't leave 
a mop and an old broom and a pair of rubbers in it if 
you can see them all the time. Mops should hang 
in the sun summer and winter. Have two in cold 
weather ; and when one is frozen and sweetened and 
pretty dry hang it, mop end up, in the dry heat of 
the kitchen, while the other hangs outdoors ; but don't 
hang a wet one where anybody can smell it. Brooms 
should have screw eyes or leather thongs in the end 
of the handles to hang them up by. A good shed 
broom can be made by chopping off the uneven, soft 
ends of a worn house broom. It will be stiff, with 
a thick, even sweeping surface, and much lighter than 
such a stiff one new would be. 

Shed pantries are a delusion and a snare. A good 
store closet is needed somewhere, but if you can have 
enough bins and convenient places in your kitchen you 
will save steps by abolishing the shed pantry. A cup- 
board to keep little used iron kettles, paring machines, 
meat choppers, pails of lard, etc, may be tolerated ; but 



22 THE HEALTHFUL FARMHOUSE 

beware of such a place, for it gets to be a catch-all very 
easily. In any case the things had better be near the 
kitchen range if possible. Any cupboard needs venti- 
lation all the time. Some of the door panels might well 
be taken out and wire screens or cheese cloth substi- 
tuted, or wire panels at the top and bottom of the back, 
if it stands away from the wall. But watch for the 
smell as you open the door. If you don't like it you 
should not keep cooking utensils there. 

A shed ought to have a " back porch," roofed, where 
you can prepare vegetables, prepare fruit for canning, 
wash and sun the milk things, and escape for rest from 
the heated kitchen for a minute. It will add greatly 
to your comfort and your cheerfulness. You will be 
surprised to see how much cleaner you want things 
when you work out of doors, and how much rested you 
are when the peas are shelled. 

SEPARATE MILK ROOM 

The milk should be kept separate from everything 
else. It ought not to be near the stables or near the 
smells of cooking. A separate building is best if there 
is a covered way leading to it. But a farm milk room 
need not be large, and it is kept cleaner if under the 
house roof. The ideal milk room has windows or doors 
on all sides, but plenty of windows on the south side 
anyway. It has a cement floor laid on small stones 
on the ground, with a smooth surface, inclined so that 
every drop of water spilled can run out through a 
short tile drain to the open air ; it has a large tank 
of running water in which cans of milk and cream 



THE SHED 2 3 

and water-tight boxes for butter can be kept cool. 
It has separator, butter worker, and churn all hung 
from the ceiling or walls, so that the floor is kept 
free to clean. If an engine is used it should be out- 
side the milk room, and connected with shafting and 
pulleys at the ceiling. Every surface, window frames, 
shelves, walls, ceiling, all but the cement floor should 
be painted white — matched boards with a smooth 
surface (not beaded) are the best finish. 

If the cement floor is impossible, a well-laid double 
floor with waterproof paper between and a thoroughly 
painted surface will do. It should be, however, inclined 
to let the water run off, or sometimes the cracks will 
be soaked and the boards contaminated. Unless you 
can frequently turn a jet of steam into it, the tile 
drain outlet should be not more than eighteen or twenty 
inches long. This may empty into an open trough 
that may be easily shifted, as described before, and 
it should be frequently cleaned out with hot water 
and sal soda and scalded. 

Much as a separate milk room is needed, many 
farmers will not provide it. It is possible to stand 
the separator in the shed, and keep a better place 
clean for separating than any barn can be. Make a 
light partition, head-high, about one of the windows, 
or at least keep everything six feet or more from 
the separator. Allow nothing to stay in the shed that 
has a bad odor. Be sure that every bit of floor or 
wall or wooden surface near the separator is smooth 
and painted before it is spattered with oil or milk. 
Any such spatterings should be wiped off each time 



24 THE HEALTHFUL FARMHOUSE 

the separator is used, before they "dry on." It will 
be an easy matter then to wash down the walls and 
separator frames occasionally, and by yourself watch- 
ing the cloths used for "rubbing off," you can be sure 
that ill-smelling and oily ones are promptly removed 
and fresh ones put in place. Where cotton waste, 
such as engineers use, can be procured, there is a 
great saving in washing, since it is burned at once. 

Whether the milk things are washed in the dairy 
room or kitchen depends upon the supply of running 
water and of hot water. It is usually easier to do 
them near the stove and hot water, if the cans are 
not too heavy to empty easily. But wherever you 
wash them do it as described in Chapter I. 1 

QUESTION'S FOR CHAPTER II 

1. Is there anything in your shed that is not 
needed there ? 

2. Are the walls and floor painted or smooth 
enough to be occasionally scrubbed? 

3. Is the shed floor water-tight ? 

4. Is the water from washing easily removed? 

5. Are you sure the drain is safe? 

6. If there is no drain, are you careful not to 
throw the washing water and slops on the same spot 
next the house ? 

7. Is there a dark entry or passageway that could 
be taken into a larger room? Or can you put a win- 
dow in it ? 

1 United States Department of Agriculture, Farmers' Bulletins on 
Care ol Milk, and Wisconsin Bulletins on Dairy Cleanlini 



THE SHED 25 

8. If there is a pantry or cupboard in the shed do 
you really need it ? Is it ventilated ? 

9. Is the milk room separate ? If not, is the 
separator in a clean, open space near a window ? 

10. Are the walls and floor about the milk tools 
painted and frequently washed ? 



CHAPTER III 

THE CELLAR 

THE farmhouse cellar must be more than a store- 
room for fruit, vegetables, preserves, and other 
food. It is a protection for the house from the moisture 
of the ground, the cold of the snow, and penetrating 
winds. If the sills are painted and laid in cement on 
the cellar wall, the house is much warmer in severely 
cold or windy weather, and a wooden house with a cellar 
will last much longer than one built on the ground. 
A heated house acts like a chimney. Not only does 
it draw air in from the ground through the cellar walls 
and floor, unless they are made with cement, but the 
movement of the air is from the bottom upwards, and 
the air of the cellar makes its way into every part 
of the house. The dark streaks on the plastered 
ceilings are formed by the dust in the air as it passes 
through the plastering. 

These facts prove the necessity for especially con- 
sidering the cellar as a reservoir of air for the whole 
house ; and there is little use in adopting special 
methods of ventilation for the living rooms if foul 
air is allowed constantly to rise from the cellar. Dur- 
ing most of the year plenty of air should blow through 
the cellar through screened open windows. 

In this chapter and in the following one many of 
the points may appear unnecessary, or the risk to 

26 



THE CELLAR 



27 



health, in ignoring them, very slight ; but the sum 
of such trifles often makes the difference between 
physical vigor and weakness, and the risk, small as 
it is, is greater and more serious than that from fire, 
against which the farmer always insures himself. 

One of the most dangerous qualities of the un- 
healthful house is that it does not always and at once 
produce a definite disease, such as typhoid fever or 
diphtheria, though such is often its result ; but it 
slowly and insidiously causes ill health and general 




Cellars need bigger windows 

weakness, to which women, from their greater con- 
finement to the house, are especially subject. Even 
after making the cellar or whole house sanitary, it 
must be kept so. Cleanness and pure air will usually 
make it safe, but it takes eternal vigilance to keep 
things clean and to keep the fresh air moving through. 
The cellar must have openings, doors or windows, 
on different sides to make a cross draught possible. 
The windows should be as large as possible. Where 
the sills of the house are only a short distance above 
the ground, larger windows can be made by dig- 
ging the earth away from the outside of the cellar 



28 



THE HEALTHFUL FARMHOUSE 



wall and laying brick in cement about a little area. 
Such an arrangement would let more than twice as 
much light into the cellar, because the wall and the 
inside of the area can be whitewashed and so reflect 
more light than the growing grass would allow to pass. 
All the windows in the cellar should be carefully 
screened, not merely to keep cats out, but to guard 
against the malarial mosquitoes. 

In the North houses are set close to the ground 




*>«/S* 



This window gives more light and air 



because of the warmth to be gained by a low, in- 
closed cellar, but such cellars need bigger windows, 
as illustrated, and often a ventilating shaft would be 
a safeguard. 

The best authorities state that the house cellar is 
no place for fruit or vegetables. Apples require a very 
cold, moist place to keep well ; potatoes must have 
a sweet, clean, dry but perfectly dark room ; and all 
other vegetables will contaminate the air of your house 
unless buried in sand and kept in a well-ventilated 
room. Yet the Northern farmer's wife cannot go to 



the cellar 



29 



the barn or root cellar for every day's dinner. A large 
stock of vegetables must be provided for outside the 
house, but a small store can be kept with safety this 
way : Shut off one end of your cellar with a tight par- 
tition covered with wire lathing and Portland cement 
plaster. Cover the floor beams above with the same; 
have the door into this small room fit well ; cover 
part of the window to make it dark ; and outside the 
other part build a ventilating shaft 
of wood, air-tight, which will carry 
away the bad air arising from the 
decaying vegetables outside the 
house to the roof, above any win- 
dows. Then, if your vegetables 
are kept in barrels of sand, they 
will keep well, and so will you ! 
Every spring all boxes, barrels, and 
vegetables must be taken out and 
the cellar walls whitewashed. 

Whitewashing with lime, level- 
ing the floor, tamping and cover- 
ing it with several inches of clean, 
dry sand, and constant ventilation will do much to make 
an old cellar safe to live over until you can make it 
better. Lime has wonderful "sweetening" power, and 
it should be used more all about the farm. 

The ideal cellar will be as light and dry and clean 
as any room in the house. The walls and floor are 
covered with hydraulic cement (Portland cement, the 
only kind that will keep out moisture). The windows 
are large, are on different sides, and may be opened 




The shaft 



30 THE HEALTHFUL FARMHOUSE 

easily. The walls are free from dust and cobwebs, 
and look attractive in their coat of whitewash. It 
will take much work to achieve such a cellar from 
the dark, rough stone walls and soggy dirt floor of 
many farmhouse cellars ; but it is good investment 
of time and money, for it will be repaid in the better 
health of the family and the lessened work of the 
succeeding years. 1 

QUESTIONS FOR CHAPTER III 

i. Is there a cellar or ventilated air space under 
the whole house ? 

2. Is the cellar perfectly dry at all seasons of the 
year ? 

3. Are the floors and sides cemented ? 

4. If not, is the floor leveled and covered with 
several inches of clean sand ? 

5. Is the cellar thoroughly cleaned and white- 
washed with lime every spring ? 

6. Has the cellar several windows on opposite 
sides so that it is light and well aired ? 

7. Is care taken to keep the ground outside the 
cellar windows free from any contamination ? 

8. Are these windows screened ? 

9. If vegetables are kept in the cellar are they 
in a small room, inclosed, walls and ceiling, with 
hydraulic cement, and ventilated? 

J The Country Home, pp. 41-43. 



CHAPTER IV 

VENTILATION 

THERE is no excuse for bad air in a farmhouse. 
In the open country fresh air at least is easily pro- 
vided. In fact, in wooden houses too much air is the 
fear throughout the winter. More air than we realize 
comes through the walls of the house and around the 
windows and doors, but the farmhouse problem is 
how to get the bad air out. 

An open fireplace is the best solution. An open 
fire draws the air of the room toward it, and its escape 
up the chimney keeps the air purer and fresher than 
is possible in any other way. The main principle of 
ventilation is circulation ; that is, a constant change 
of air in any one place. An open fireplace, even 
without a fire, carries off a large amount of impure 
air ; but a window open at the top will do it, too. 

Every room should have at least one window so 
arranged that it can easily be let down about six 
inches from, the top. Where there is only one win- 
dow, as in many farmhouse bedrooms, it should be 
opened a little at the top to let used-up air out, and 
at the bottom to let fresh air in. This will make 
"circulation." In winter it is well to put a board 
against the opening at the bottom so as to send the 
current of fresh air up . into the room instead of mak- 
ing a draught across it ; or coarse flannel, or cheese 



32 



THE HEALTHFUL FARMHOUSE 



cloth, on a small frame like a fly screen, can be put 
under the window. 

There should be, beside the outlets for impure air 




The flannel or cheese cloth screen 

in the rooms of the house, a general outlet at the roof. 
A scuttle, or skylight, is good, except in very windy 
weather. If on the opposite side of the roof from the 



VENTILATION 



33 



prevailing winds, and hinged at the top so as to be 
opened a little, it will make a very good outlet, and 
will not generally cause any down draught. 

In a room that is used by many people, or that is 
likely to get very hot, as in the kitchen, a cross draught 
is necessary ; that is, a window should be opened at 
the bottom on one side of the room, and one should 
be opened at the top on the other side. Often the 




kitchen has a narrow window over the door, which with 
hinges at the bottom and hooks or string at the top 
will make an outlet for the heated air without any 
down draught. This top outlet should always be pro- 
vided when cooking is going on, for it is this heated 
air at the top of the kitchen that will carry unpleasant 
odors and smoke all through the house. If the bad 
air can possibly escape outdoors from the top of the 
kitchen or living room window, its place is immediately 
filled by fresh air from the cracks around the windows. 



34 THE HEALTHFUL FARMHOUSE 

Strong draughts are to be guarded against, not 
only because of the discomfort they cause, but because 
they may keep the used-up air from finding the outlet 
you have provided for it. If a gust of wind sweeps 
through the house when the kitchen door is opened, 
see if the shed doors are shut, or if there are not 
some big openings in the partitions above the shed 
door. 

Keeping the rooms all open throughout the house 
greatly aids the circulation of air. Warmer bedrooms 
and cooler sitting rooms would make healthier chil- 
dren. Besides, it takes less fuel to make fresh air 
feel warm than to make stale air feel warm. Cold 
halls make it hard to ventilate a house. Where the 
upstairs part is little used, or where the upstairs bed- 
rooms have furnace heat or their own stoves, it is 
well to make a door across the bottom of the stairway 
and open the doors into the hall. In that way, by 
shutting off the draught from the stairs, the whole 
living floor of the house can be kept at the same 
temperature. 

The important objects of ventilation are : 

I. To provide an abundance of pure air. 

II. To avoid draughts, either warm or cold. 

III. To provide means of escape for foul air and 
odors. 

Time and money spent in providing good ventila- 
tion will be well invested, for every member of the 
family will feel an increase in vigor, comfort, and 
cheerfulness. 



VENTILATION 35 

QUESTIONS FOR CHAPTER IV 

1. Are all living rooms and sleeping rooms thor- 
oughly aired at least once a day ? 

2. Are the windows so placed as to make a draught 
possible when a quick change of air is needed ? 

3. Is there a skylight at the top of the house as 
an outlet for impure air ? 

4. If such a skylight is impracticable, can a window 
in the top story be kept open a little most of the 
time ? 

5. Are the outside or double windows made with 
movable panes, so as to admit a current of air when 
desired ? 

6. Is at least one window in each room arranged 
so that it can be lowered easily from the top ? 

7. When a sleeping room is used as a sewing 
room or sitting room during the day, is it thoroughly 
aired before bedtime ? 

8. In cold weather do you hang a piece of cotton 
cloth over the opening of each bedroom window, or 
place a board against the window, or put a screen 
before the window to break the force of the current 
of air ? 

9. Do you open the chamber windows as soon as 
you are dressed ? Do you at the same time open the 
closet door ? 

10. Are the living rooms kept at a temperature 
not exceeding yo° F. ? 

11. Does the member of the family who is the 
last to retire thoroughly air the room where the fam- 
ily have been sitting through the evening, in order 



36 THE HEAL'J -I 

that the foul air may not have a chance to make its 
way through the house during the night ? 

12. Has the kitchen adequate arrangements for 
constant ventilation and occasional airing? 

13. Do you keep a window lowered a little from 
the top or keep the transom over the door open ? 



CHAPTER V 



THE DINING ROOM 



WHETHER you eat in the kitchen or in a separate 
dining room the main questions are the same. 
Often a very big kitchen could be divided into a little 
convenient kitchen and a more attractive dining room. 
A separate dining room is much easier to keep clean 
than part of a big kitchen. See that everything has 
its place ; that is, the place where it is easiest to put 
it away, to be reached when needed, to be kept clean. 
If it isn't easy to keep things clean they gradually get 
dirty, or the housekeeper grows tired and old too soon. 

A floor painted all over is surely best where there 
are children. Older children and grown-ups can have 
a rug under the table, but it should be frequently 
cleaned ; wash every place where food drops. The 
rugs should be small enough to go out of doors easily, 
and not to be in the way of moving chairs and spilled 
milk. The woodwork and wall paper should be cheer- 
ful in color, and with such surfaces as can be easily 
cleaned ; both painted woodwork and plain-colored pa- 
pers will stand having grease spots and fly specks 
removed with sal soda. The table should be solid and 
level, and not "teetery." When the table top is of 
smooth-finished hard wood it will look much prettier 
between meal times if left bare, with a growing plant 
or a bunch of flowers on a mat in the middle of it. 



38 THE HEALTHFUL FARMHOUSE 

Most of the dish closets in the farmhouse are suit- 
able only for storing little used dishes in. The dishes 
used every day are much more easily put away and 
taken to the table if kept on open, narrow shelves 
against the wall of the dining room. Since they are 
used every day or two they won't get dusty, and are 
a great help in decorating the dining room. Even if 
they do get dusty, it is easier to remove the dust 
from a dish used only occasionally than to put all the 
dishes into an inconvenient cupboard. Such shelves 
should be made just wide enough for the dishes and 
be at least a half inch from the wall. Corners at the 
back get dusty, and are hard to clean or paint or 
stain. Have one of these convenient dish shelves 
extend across the window which connects with the 
kitchen. With such an arrangement very little walking 
to and from the dining table is needed. 

Under the dish shelves some cupboards, narrow, 
with shelves just wide enough for your large plates, 
set out an inch from the wall, will be found most 
convenient for bread, cake, bits of left-over preserves, 
etc. They will be cooler and nearer the table than 
in the kitchen. Such cupboards should be painted 
inside with light-colored paint. Glasses can be kept 
behind doors, but be sure you don't have to open and 
shut too many doors "doing up your work." 

Just a word against the almost universal farm custom 
of keeping a table set all the time. It takes no more 
work, if the shelves and cupboards are near at hand, 
to clear a table entirely after each meal than it does to 
"fix up" properly, leaving the cloth and many things 



NIK DINING ROOM 39 

in place. Everything about the table seems fresher 
and more inviting if it is just laid. What is more dis- 
gusting than to sit at a table where any sign whatever 
remains of the meal before ? An accidental spot may 
be carefully concealed by a cloth laid over it, but one 
of the children will rub it up and disclose the hidden 
fact. But changing the cloth seemed to be too much 
trouble with that assortment of spoonholders, salt 
shakers, tumblers, etc, in the middle of it. It is 
a mistaken idea that it saves work to let linen be- 
come soiled. Better do without tablecloths altogether 
than to use one soiled or without a "silence" cloth 
underneath. 

If the family is not too large and noisy, eating 
from a bare table is the most attractive and labor- 
saving fashion possible in the farm dining room. In- 
stead of a tablecloth have for each place a doily made 
from outworn white tablecloths, or a long scarf across 
from "father's to mother's place" and doilies for the 
others. Little, round, crocheted macrame mats for 
each plate, for each cup and saucer, and for the serv- 
ing dishes will keep the table quiet and dainty in 
appearance. By setting the places evenly, taking pains 
that the serving dishes, salt and pepper and bread 
things are in line in the center of the table, and 
putting a dish of flowers in the middle, a prettier 
table can be set than is found in most farmhouses ; 
and after the food and dishes are removed, the little 
mats shaken and put away, the table is washed or 
wiped with a damp cloth, no grease spots left, no 
crumbs under the sugar bowl, no water left soaking 



40 THE HEALTHFU] FARMHOl SE 

into the tabic top, and — no more long tablecloths to 
"do up!" If you haven't a genius for setting things 

straight, cultivate it, and practice setting things in 
line ; but if once tried this plan is never given up. 
What is good enough for luncheon and breakfast in 
the finest houses need not look poverty stricken or 
like camping out in a farmhouse. 

If the family is too large or too conservative for 
such a scheme, and you must use a tablecloth, remove 
it at least once a day, and change it when soiled. Don't 
try to cover up dirt anywhere. A red tablecloth seems 
to keep clean longer, but it shows grease spots more 
than a while one and is much harder to iron. Where 
there is a washing machine the white cloths seem 
easier, because more pleasant to handle. Better use a 
clean cloth without ironing than one even slightly soiled. 
No two women think just alike about housework, and 
no woman wants to change "her way"; but many put 
too much energy into ironing table linen that ought to 
be spent in studying out easier or better ways of caring 
for it. Man} - others, however, neglect the making of 
a table attractive who scrub a kitchen floor oftener than 
need be. If tablecloths and napkins are brought in 
with some of the outdoor air and dampness in them, 
carefully stretched and folded, very little ironing will 
suffice and it is better to use clean napkins without 
ironing than none at all. Teach, the children to be 
careful and dainty and the washing needn't trouble you; 
and if you show them that you take pains to keep the 
table tidy and attractive they will respect it and help. 
Use the children's steps to save yours and to interest 



THE DINING ROOM 4 1 

them. My boy of six will clear away a table as daintily 
as I, and with a few reminders set it, every fork and 
spoon straight and in its place. He enjoys it, too, 
because he knows he can do it "just the way you do ! " 
We eat three times a day, every day of the three hun- 
dred and sixty-five, and it seems rather more important 
to keep the table up to a dainty standard than to wash 
the parlor windows, clean and dust the room, and 
then shut it up again ! And don't be in a hurry to 
leave your attractive table. Take time to eat slowly 
and show enjoyment of each other's interests. After 
dinner a bit of rest is good for all, and the pleasantest 
times for the children to remember in later years are 
the talks that can come around the table. 1 

QUESTIONS FOR CHAPTER V 

i. Is the floor of hard wood or painted? 

2. Are the rugs easily moved and frequently 
cleaned outside the house? 

3. Are the walls finished with paint or smooth 
paper ? 

4. Is there a window into the kitchen with a wide 
shelf on both sides ? 

5. Are the dishes on the side of the room nearest 
the kitchen window, in order to save steps in putting 
away ? 

6. If not, can't you plan another arrangement of 
dishes that will be more convenient ? 

7. Is the table entirely cleared after each meal, or 
once a day ? 

1 The Country Home, pp. 44, 45, 221-228. 



42 THE HEALTHFUL FARMHOUSE 

8. Are the tablecloth and napkins changed as soori 
as soiled ? 

9. Is the dining room cheerful ? If not, what does 
it lack ? 

10. Can you put in another window? Or put a 
yellow or other bright paper on the walls ? 

1 1 . Would a double door into the living room make 
it more cheerful, or more easily warmed in winter ? 



CHAPTER VI 

THE LIVING ROOM 

THE farmhouse living room ought to be the largest 
and lightest room in the house. Plenty of sun- 
shine and plenty of fresh air it needs. Everything in 
it must have its own place ; a few movable chairs, of 
course, but "father's chair" and "mother's chair" 
should have their recognized places near the table and 
reading lamp. The baby's playthings must go back 
into their corner at night, the boy's books must have 
their place on the shelves, the couch or big seat should 
be kept clear of sewing, books, or coats ; everything 
should be ready to use, yet not in the way. By study- 
ing the needs and pleasure of every member of the 
family, and keeping the living room furniture and fit- 
tings to conform to them, we can build up a " homey " 
place that will reflect the atmosphere of the family life, 
that will truly represent the character of the farm, that 
will mean " home " to every child brought up in it, and 
will rest and comfort the housekeeper as no other room 
can. So choose carefully whatever you put into it. 
Try to put into it a fireplace, a few good books, some 
musical instruments, a fine picture, or photographs of 
tine ones, a big seat or couch, and some comfortable 
cushions, a steady table, and good lamp ; then, if the 
room is of fair size, it will look cheerful and like a 
living room, even with a basket of mending on the 

43 



44 THE HEALTHFUL FARMHOUSE 

table, the baby's blocks on the floor, and a small boy's 
soldiers on the window sill. 1 

Unless the floor is hard wood, oiled and waxed or 
varnished, it is better painted all over. Rugs, such 
as you can make or afford to buy, will be much easier 
to clean and often prettier than a carpet ; but if you 
must use a carpet paint the floor first, and tack the 
carpet about twenty inches from the wall. Dark reds 
and browns are pleasant to live with, but show dust 
and tracks much more than greens, greenish-grays, 
or light brown. 

Wall paper should be of plain color, or very simple 
design. When one is tired it "worries him" to follow 
a pattern ; pictures never look well against uneasy wall 
papers streaked with gilt, and a room seems much 
smaller if the walls are confusing. A bright, light 
color — red, brown, yellow, or green — in cartridge 
paper costs less than many " patterns," and will do 
more to make your living room airy and cheerful than 
any other one thing. Have only a few pictures — those 
dignified and as good as you can afford. Life-size por- 
traits are not usually agreeable companions, even if 
they are fine oil paintings ; they need a big space ; 
and dorit hang up calendars ! One calendar, easily 
seen, may be near the desk for convenience, but the 
magnificent ones sent out every year as advertisements 
are of little use as decoration. If they please you, and 
you like the picture well enough to put it on your wall 
and live with it a year, don't hang it where it looks 
too big and will be crooked most of the time, but 

1 The Country Home, pp. 46-48. 



THE LIVING ROOM 45 

cut it out and tack it on a mat of good color against 
the wall. Many famous paintings have been repro- 
duced for calendars, and are well suited to such a use, 
but be careful that your calendar picture is not too 
glaring in color and subject for your living room. 

The farmhouse living room should be different from 
town sitting rooms. It is the business of the farm to 
grow things, to produce rather than to buy. It is a 
great mistake to buy furniture at the store just like 
that used in small city " flats " because it is cheap. 
Every bit of furniture in a farmhouse should be simple, 
strong, restful to look at, and easy to clean. The old 
Colonial style has never been improved upon. The furni- 
ture used in fine farmhouses one or two hundred years ago 
is today the most beautiful and most fitting. Straight, 
smooth surfaces, removable cushions, strong legs, and 
well-made joints — how many chairs bought nowadays 
in country or city stores have them ? Many a man can 
make with saw, hammer, and chisel chairs better suited 
to his own and his wife's comfort than any he can afford 
to buy. If we had fewer chairs, better made, and more 
window seats (just boxes two feet by five, thirteen inches 
high, with straw-stuffed cushions on top), we and our 
children should be more comfortable. Remember, too, 
that the living room must do more than reflect your 
life as it is, or make you comfortable; it must hold 
ideals for your children. A boy does not respect a 
chair made of "rotten" wood; he doesn't care for 
books that are too "nice" for him to read at any 
time (when his hands are clean) ; he doesn't keep news- 
papers, magazines, and books on the table in order 



46 I Hi HEALTHFUL FARMHOUSE 

unless he finds them so ; but he will love a room and 
the people in it, if he feels that you respect each 
article and plan for the comfort and pleasure of every 
one. 

The less that is hung in windows the better. Lace 
curtains hanging to the floor have no place in a farm- 
house. Thin ones that hang straight, not "looped 
back," just inside the window frame are good, but 
they should be on rings on a rod that slide easily. 
Curtains made of thin lawn or dimity are much prettier 
and often cheaper than "shade rollers," and will entirely 
fill their place. 

Keeping such a room clean is a very simple matter. 
All rugs, chair cushions, pillows, and stuffed chairs, 
and heavy curtains, if there are any, are carried out- 
doors on a breezy, sunny day, beaten, swept, and left 
outside as long as practicable. Enough windows should 
be opened to make a good draught. Walls are wiped 
with a wall mop (made by tying a cloth or Canton 
flannel bag over the broom), shelves and chairs are 
dusted, and the floor carefully swept. If no carpet 
or stuffy things are left in the room no dust will be 
raised. 

It may seem unnecessary to dust both before 
and after sweeping, but, as a rule, farmhouse chairs 
and shelves accumulate gritty dust or ashes that 
really ought to go out with the sweepings. There 
must be a final dusting of everything — woodwork, 
furniture, and floor (wash the floor if it is painted). 
Then the freshened things from outdoors will fill the 
room with a sweetness not found in carpeted houses. 



THE LIVING ROOM 47 

It will stay clean long enough to pay for the extra 
trouble, too. How often this thorough cleaning 
should take place depends on nearness to the dusty 
road, on the number in the family, and on the daily 
care. With daily watchfulness and a small family 
once a month will do, but I find once a week neces- 
sary when the room is much used in the winter 
months. With the children to help tote, it seems 
easier to sweep with the. movable things outdoors, 
and there is never any confused house-cleaning. 
Doing the living room and dining room one day, 
the bedrooms on another, and the kitchen and shed 
on still another keeps one from unnecessary fatigue. 1 

QUESTIONS FOR CHAPTER VI 

i. Is the floor of hard wood or painted? 

2. Are the rugs easily carried out to be beaten 
and swept ? 

3. In case rugs or carpets covering only a portion 
of the floor are not used, are the edges of the carpet 
frequently cleaned with a damp cloth after sweeping? 

4. Since dust sifts through mattings or loosely 
woven carpets, are the floors laid with closely matched 
boards ? 

5. Arc the walls frequently dusted with a wall 
mop ? 

6. Are the windows so curtained as to permit 
free admission of sunlight and to offer scant hospitality 
to dust ?' 

J The Farmstead, pp. 193, 203. The Care of a House, pp. 209-222. 



48 THE HEALTHFUL FARMH01 SE 

7. Are hangings and draperies so arranged as to 
be easily taken down and shaken ? 

8. Are there neither furniture nor ornaments 
which cannot be properly cared for by daily dusting? 

9. If there is a wood box, is it painted or varnished 
inside and frequently cleaned out ? 

10. Is there anything in the room you or the 
family find inconvenient, ugly, or hard to keep clean? 
Why not remove it ? 



CHAPTER VII 

BEDROOMS 

SIMPLICITY in furniture and decoration is the 
first need in a bedroom. Have a painted floor — 
if you can have hard wood so much the better — with 
a small rug or two. A carpet under the bed means a 
back-breaking job of moving the bed or sweeping 
under it every time you sweep and a struggle at 
house-cleaning time. Everything in the bedroom should 
be washable or easily cleaned. If lint flies to the bare 
floor under the bed, you see it and can clean it up 
easily ; but in the shadow on a carpet, how can you ? 
Rugs can go outdoors for sunning, and bedroom fit- 
tings need sun as much as others. For that reason, 
if for no other, blankets are better than the "puffs" 
and "comforters" used. Woolen blankets, or wool 
and cotton, last for more than one generation if prop- 
erly cared for, freshen up a room amazingly after 
hanging outdoors on a sunny, breezy day, and can be 
easily washed and rinsed in a washing machine. But 
have soft, light ones ; they are warmer than the stiff, 
, coarse kind and last longer. If you must use "puffs" 
have a cheese cloth or thin cover, not a harsh, impene- 
trable cotton one that sunlight and fresh air can get 
through. The coverlet or spread should keep the 
dust out of it. When our grandmothers pieced quilts 
they used soft cotton stuff and quilted them, instead 
of making puffs out of stiff prints. 

49 



SO THE HEALTHFU] FARMHOUSE 

An old-fashioned, painted vvashstand, open all around, 
is much more sanitary than the more modern com- 
mode. If a closed-in stand or commode is used it 
should go outdoors occasionally for a careful cleaning, 
drying, and sunning. When dry and sweet-smelling, 
paint and varnish it inside. It will be less likely to 
hold bad odors. The average bedroom is an uncom- 
fortable place in which to bathe, so the washing ac- 
commodations should be small and simple. The white 
enameled iron stands, such as are used in hospitals, 
are most sanitary, but if you buy cheap ones you must 
keep them in repair and repaint them occasionally. 

The most important part of the care of the 
bedroom, however, is the daily airing and constant ven- 
tilation of it. This point is where farmhouse keepers 
fall below their city sisters' standards. Because the 
farm bedrooms are often cold the bad air is not 
noticeable, but unless ventilated as described in Chap- 
ter IV no room that one or two persons have slept in 
is fit to use again until all the air has been changed. 
One of the first lessons physiology teaches us is that 
our bodies rebuild themselves during sleep. This 
repairing of the body through the breathing fills the 
air with carbonic acid gas and organic impurities. 
The night clothing and bed clothing hold such im- 
purities as come from the breath and the perspiration, 
and the impure matter in the air of the room will 
"settle" and stick to the walls and furniture, as well 
as to the clothing. Fresh air, frequent dusting, and 
much sunshine entirely remove and destroy such im- 
purities. A well-known authority states that "breath- 
ing impure air is a prolific cause of catarrhal colds 



IT 




— ■-■ ■ ■ ■ I' mj " ' — — - — i 




BEDROOMS 51 

and sore throats ; it predisposes a child to tonsilitis, 
bronchitis, and pneumonia ; and as a result of lowered 
vitality there is less resistance to the contagious dis- 
eases." So in your bedrooms, especially, keep plenty 
of fresh air ; sun the night clothes, pillows, and other 
bedding out of doors, and don't shut the bedroom 
doors, even at night, unless you have provided for 
good ventilation. 

Some one will say, "If we do everything as 
carefully as we are told we can never get our work 
done." True, too. But keep a high standard before 
you. If the family is large, and one woman works 
alone, she cannot do everything as well as her neigh- 
bor, whose "big girls" help. Then teach the children 
to open their beds, put the pillows in chairs near the 
open windows, and open the closet door as soon as 
they are dressed. Even the hired man will do this 
much for you if he knows it is the "rule of the 
house." At all events, try to do the thing that is 
of great importance to the welfare of your family. 
Fresh air and sweet-smelling bedclothes are worth 
much more to them than pies ; and if you can keep 
them well they will be hungry enough to "eat any- 
thing." But "there are times" —of course, there 
are — and you can't take all the night clothes of 
a large family out of doors every day, but if you 
begin doing it once or twice a week you'll find it 
possible to do it oftener ; and the children love to 
carry pillows back into the house — if you don't ask 
them to! More than this, when you keep a simpler 
furnished bedroom in what is the most healthful 



52 THE HEALTHFUL FARMHOUSE 

fashion you will find it rarely needs a house-cleaning, 
and really saves in the year's work. 

Insist on the children's changing their underclothes 
at night. Little children in cold weather need as much 
warm clothing when asleep as when moving about, but 
it should be loose and comfortable, and not that worn 
through the day, which is moist and more likely to give 
them colds than a window opened at the top. Less 
bedding and warm night clothes will make them sleep 
more quietly than with heavy bed clothes. " One-third 
of our lives is spent in bed," one-half of a child's ought 
to be, so you cannot be too careful of the bedrooms. 
They need much reform in the average farmhouse. 

QUESTIONS FOR CHAPTER VII 

1. Is the floor of hard wood or painted ? 

2. Are the rugs movable or tacked down ? 

3. Have the windows only such curtains as can 
be washed ? 

4. Are mattresses substituted for feather beds? 

5. Are mattresses and pillows aired daily, often 
turned and dusted, occasionally cleaned carefully, and 
frequently exposed in the open air on a sunny day for 
several hours ? 

6. Are the bed coverings washable ? 

7. Are they, and the night clothes, aired every 
morning ? 

8. Are soiled clothes removed at once from the 
bedrooms ? 

9. Are the clothes worn through the day aired at 
night ? 

10. Can one window, at least, open from the top? 



CHAPTER VIII 

HALLS, STAIRWAYS, AND BATHROOM 

A FARMHOUSE has little need of a formal en- 
trance hall. A vestibule for protection against 
the cold in winter, with provision for hats and wraps, 
an umbrella holder, and a seat (a low locker in which 
to keep overshoes), is all that is needed. Big halls 
with staircases are hard to heat ; the warm air rushes 
up or the colder air from above will settle, so that 
the doors are usually kept closed in cold weather. 
A cold, shut-up hall upsets the ventilating plans for 
the whole house, and makes a cold, cheerless place. 
Keep the hall doors open to insure a circulation of 
fresh air throughout the house. At all events, open 
the outside door for a while every morning to change 
the air entirely. If the hall is much used as an en- 
trance the outdoors dirt should be removed every day, 
for it is the dust from the street that brings in many 
disease germs near a town. A little used hall, how- 
ever, should be provided with an outside vestibule and 
kept open. If it is impossible to heat it, then the 
stairs may be shut off with a door (either at the top 
or at the bottom). The uncomfortable halls may 
always be made into useful space with a little inge- 
nuity and change of partition walls, either taken into 
the adjoining room or the space behind the stairs 
used for another purpose. 

53 



54 THE HEALTHFUL FARMHOUSE 

By putting a partition across the foot of the 
stairway and a window under the back a most con- 
venient bathroom may be made. Somehow the farm- 
house must make possible a comfortable bathroom. 

Cleanliness is of more importance than variety in 
fond, and personal cleanliness means more than clean- 
liness in clothing. Hearty old men may tell you that 
they have drunk the water from an unsafe well " for 
forty years " ; a well man may prove to you that he 
"would get his death of cold" if he bathed every 
day ; healthy families may live in houses that are not 
ventilated ; but the younger men and women, the 
children growing up now, have to pay for the neglect 
or the ignorance of their elders. Weak lungs, weak 
hearts, weak backs, colorless faces, and many an in- 
herited disease are the punishments that are "visited 
upon the heads of the children " ; and in order to 
make our children strong and well we must teach 
them the laws of health and right living. Bad teeth, 
weak digestion, sluggish circulation of the blood, stoop- 
ing shoulders, lack of vitality, and many other weak- 
nesses noticeable in the rising generation can be 
avoided by clean living and simple, wholesome food. 
Both these are within the mother's control. Next to 
pure air ami wholesome food a child needs instruction 
in personal cleanliness. Not only to wash his hands 
before touching food, to wash his sticky hands rather 
than wipe them on his clothes, to clean his finger 
nails properly — in short, to keep his body clean — he 
must be taught to bathe regularly, and it must be 
made easy for him to do so. " Cleanliness is next 



HALLS. STAIRWAYS, AND BATHROOM 5 5 

to godliness," and why ? When a man or a child is 
tired out, nervous, or irritable a good bath will give 
energy and a different turn to the thoughts. A man 
will have more self-respect when he has bathed; the 
child is happier and better tempered. 

Sensible rules for bathing have not yet been made 
for the farmer's family. Each family must make its 
own. The college professor or energetic business 
man from the city will find great benefit in a cold 
morning bath, but not the farmer. His bath had 
better be warm and at night. Then the dirt and 
fatigue of the day are removed, and give him the best 
chance for a restful sleep. His morning chores give 
him outdoor air, exercise quite sufficient for his cir- 
culation, and appetite for breakfast. Some children 
will sleep better for a warm bath at night ; but when- 
ever it comes teach them to bathe daily. It is hard 
for the person of middle age to acquire such a habit, 
but a child trained to it will not change as he grows 
up. A prominent physician, in a recent magazine 
article, says the reason for daily bathing is " not for 
the body, but for the soul " ; and also, that " people 
who are down with the blues have often got over 
them by taking the right kind of baths." A good 
thing for farm women to note. 

A reasonable bathing room, then, should be found 
in every farmhouse 1 — "reasonable," not an extrava- 
gant bathroom with plumbing, unless you have water 
and fuel for its maintenance, but at least a room 

iThe Farmstead, pp. 208-211, 213-217. The Country Home, 
pp. 67-68. 



56 THE HEALTHFUL FARMHOUSE 

that can be easily aired, cleaned, and warmed, in which 
there is a bathtub and wash basin, connected by pipes 
and traps with the tile drain. In many farmhouses 
there is a small room leading from the kitchen, used 
as a bedroom, which might easily be made into a bath- 
room and dressing room. It isn't necessary to have 
running water at first. The fetching of warm water 
is not what keeps children and others from bathing. 
It is the standing in a cold room to bathe, and the 
carrying away the water afterward. If there is pro- 
vision for waste water and for warming the room, the 
running water can come after the whole family deems 
it necessary. Without any plumbing at all the bath- 
tub may be emptied into a low hopper leading to a tile 
drain. A wooden cover and a rug on it will keep out 
the cold. A fair-sized tin bathtub can be had in the 
East for fifteen dollars ; a stationary enameled iron one, 
"good enough for anybody," for about thirty dollars. 
The portable English tub — the "hat" tub — can be 
bought for five dollars. 

For summer bathing a " splash room " in the shed 
is a good solution of this problem. A little room, four 
feet square or thereabouts, with the floor inclined to 
let water run into a tile drain, and a tank overhead 
with a "shower," gives great comfort for very little 
expense. 

A corner of a large room used for other purposes 
may be shut off with a wooden screen to make a bath- 
room. Simply a bathtub with its drain, and a small 
stove for warmth and for heating water, is better 
than none. Many ways and contrivances are possible. 



HALLS, STAIRWAYS, AND BATHROOM 57 

if one only wants the bathroom enough to plan for it. 
Where a complete installation of good fittings by a 
responsible plumber is possible, it is the best way in 
the end ; but for those who can't afford it, or whose 
water supply is insufficient, the simple bathtub, set 
bowl, and hopper in a room near the kitchen stove 
make a good substitute. Paint the walls, ceiling, and 
floor of the bathroom, and you will have no trouble 
in keeping it clean, even if it is general wash room. 

Because the farm bathroom should be in use so 
much of the time, it is better to keep the water-closet 
in a space by itself. Take special pains to have it 
" sanitary." ' Bad plumbing does a house and its inmates 
more harm than none at all. Choose the fixtures care- 
fully ; be sure of the workmanship of the plumber who 
does the fitting, and keep constant watch of the working 
parts and the water supply. Unless you have an abun- 
dant water supply and a good drainage system, don't 
have a water-closet in the house. A well-made earth 
closet painted throughout (underside of seat boards 
and inside of box), kept clean and fly-tight, may better 
be under the house roof than cheap plumbing. 

QUESTIONS FOR CHAPTER VIII 

1. Is the hall kept free from street dirt? 

2. Is the hall aired daily ? 

3. Is the hall kept warm and open ? 

4. Is the stair carpet kept several inches away 
from the wall and balusters ? 

1 The Care of a House, chapter on Plumbing, especially, pp. 1 15— 
121 Home Sanitation, pp. 59-61. 



58 THE HEALTHFUL FARMHOtS! 

5. Has the bathroom an oiled or painted floor, 
with no other carpet than a small rug, which is often 
aired outdoors ? 

6. Is the space about the tub and bowl quite open, 
using a wall cupboard instead of drawers ? 

7. In summer does the fly screen cover the whole 
window, so that the upper sash can be lowered as well 
as the lower one raised ? 

8. In cold weather is the bathroom window opened 
frequently, top and bottom, for a few minutes at a 
time ? 

9. If you have no bathroom, do you have a big 
portable bathtub ? 

10. Is it arranged so that you can easily empty 
the water into a safe drain ? 



CHAPTER IX 

GENERAL SCHEME OF LIVING 

THERE are still to be found farms of the old- 
fashioned sort, where the life of the different 
members of the family is so mingled with that of the 
farm that a visitor finds strength and peace and comfort 
such as can be found in no other home. But it is too 
often otherwise. A large farm means much labor, and 
the mother must admit into her family circle at least 
one hired man ; then there comes a time when " help 
in the house " is needed ; from there on the farm home 
loses its significance. It may be that the family can 
live by themselves and the "hired help" are in another 
house, or can amuse themselves and eat in another 
room. Most parents have their hands full caring for 
their children, and are wise if they plan their farming 
operations and their general life so that they may keep 
their homes to themselves. We should try, not to 
make money, but to get away from the need of it. 
As this book aims to help those who do all, or nearly 
all, of their work alone, we have not considered the 
mixing with "hired help." 

The ideal farmhouse means a family working all 
together to gain a living from the soil, to make a house 
that is suited to their needs and pleasures, and to live in 
such fashion as shall make their surroundings seem a 
part of their life while affording inspiration to the grow- 

59 



60 THE HEALTHFUL FARMHOUSE 

ing children. Living on a farm does not mean isolation, 
nowadays; there are books, magazines, and newspapers, 
telephones and interested visitors in many a farming 
community ; but sometimes it seems as if the older con- 
ditions brought up sturdier and more independent men 
and women than are found in some of the more conven- 
tional neighborhoods. Each family ought to live in the 
way its members see fit, at peace with their conscience 
and their pocketbook, not struggling to build a bigger 
house than the one on the next farm, not trying to dress 
as well as the people who have the pew in front, not 
uncomfortable and ashamed because the work is not 
done up as early as Mrs. So-and-So's who comes to call. 
It isn't the measure of right living to compare the state 
of your own windows or curtains, the number of pies 
you make, the time you start the fire in the morning, 
the magnificence of the new chamber set, or the time you 
get your dress changed with anybody else. The ques- 
tions that ought to concern the farm mother are: Is the 
house healthfully clean ? Does the family have the right 
sort of food ? Are the children growing in as healthy 
a way as they should ? Is the house comfortable and 
attractive to every one in the family ? Are there things 
they want done more than the things you are doing? 
If so, can't you plan your living and working so as to 
make more out of your time and strength? Do the 
work and live as your people want you to live, not 
to satisfy any custom or habit that has grown up in 
other people's lives. 

Most farmers' wives have more work than they can 
do. No one woman can keep every one of the depart- 



GENERAL SCHEME OF LIVING 6 1 

ments she is responsible for up to her standards. It is 
the aim of this book to show her what standards are neces- 
sary for health and how she can accomplish these ends 
with more reasonable effort than she puts into dragging 
work. Effort wasted is a loss to your family as well as 
to yourself. Try to study out an arrangement of your 
rooms and tools that will enable you to shorten the time 
of any one ''job," like baking or dishwashing. But try, 
at the same time, to enlarge your outlook a little ; do it 
first by keeping the doors of all your rooms open, so that 
you can see the whole house as you go about your 
morning work. One of my greatest comforts is a large 
window between the kitchen and dining room through 
which the dishes go ; but incidentally it allows me to see, 
while washing dishes, the dining room, with the flowers 
on the table and the row of platters on the wall oppo- 
site, and the wide doorway into the living room beyond, 
where the flames of the open fire are giving comfort, 
too, to the little boys building block houses. The warm 
colors, the cushions, the sunshine across the floor, the 
feeling of distance, and its being mine are enough to 
take the mind off the endless task and give fresh incen- 
tive to finish quickly and be in there too. Of course 
the basket of stockings is waiting ; but there are also the 
new magazines we were reading last night, and, while 
darning, their covers remind me of another world and 
the thoughts are full of interest. 

There is more than good ventilation in having the 
rooms all open. The children move about more and 
do not feel "shut in" in the winter, as they would 
if they had to stay in the kitchen. If there is a pretty 



62 THE HEALTHFUL FARMHOUSE 

picture, or a nice clock on the mantel, or a new chair 
you like to look at, you don't want it shut away in 
the parlor. Have the best things you own where you 
can see them every day. If there were no pretty 
things about us, nothing but the tools of our life, we 
should be dulled, stunted in a part of our growth, and 
the children would miss the training they need in being 
taught to respect the good things, to touch books only 
with clean hands, to keep their feet off the cushions 
and polished chairs. 

If the farmer and his boys change from boots to 
slippers they will enjoy their evenings in the pleasant 
room much more. If you teach the boys to sit politely, 
not to lounge or go to sleep in the presence of others, 
it is good training against the time when they want 
manners. If you can bring into every day's life such 
little formalities as are founded on consideration for 
others, like looking out for each other's light in reading, 
keeping the feet or the chair rockers out of the way, 
giving up a comfortable chair to the mother just enter- 
ing the room, the life together will have much more 
meaning to your children. Such formalities do good, 
and the good things in the best room help train the 
children ; but a conventional parlor is only a burden 
on the housekeeper and an occasional satisfaction when 
outsiders are present. 

Don't buy chairs the children can break ; if they 
are heavy and strong they will be respected even by 
a small boy wanting a horse. Don't make cushions 
of stuff that soils too easily, like dainty silk ; stout 
materials in warm colors are more livable for any of us. 



GENERAL SCHEME OF LIVING 63 

The dainty things are only for show-off parlors. Don't 
fret if the windows do have finger marks on them ; 
better have happy boys than clean windows. Wash 
off fly specks, because they are dangerous. Don't think 
that your housekeeping is all awry because the chairs 
look "ready to ride out" and bits of paper are all 
over the floor ; make the children pick up the scraps 
and put back the chairs as best they can "to be ready 
for papa at dinner time," and you'll find that only a 
few touches of yours will make it look cheerful again. 
After all, the rooms and the furniture are for your 
family, not for your pride to show off to a visitor. 
There is a great difference between keeping a room 
or a house in apple-pie order and keeping it livable. 
If you know that the room was "clean last Saturday," 
that is, really clean, with no dust left in a carpet, but 
a rug taken outdoors and the bare floor washed, the 
simple chairs all stripped of their cushions and the 
frames wiped clean, and so on, you ought to be able 
to stand the ruction the little folks make and the 
confusion among the magazines the older ones left. 
The dirt they brought in is quickly brushed up, and 
a real cleaning is coming again. 

It is a consoling fact that by caring constantly 
for the trifles that go to make a sanitary house, you 
"keep things up" in such a way that your pride need 
never be hurt. What is "good enough" for your 
folks will surely do for others, and if there is no 
unsanitary dust around there is little to impress a 
visitor. The little confusion that comes from daily 
living is very different from the disorder that collects 



64 THE HEALTHFUL FARMHOUSE 

in a room seldom cleared out. A room " feels better " 
all the week through for the airing and cleaning that 
we insist on. 

The most conventional customs cling to the table. 
Farmers who wouldn't drive a horse too hard expect 
pie three times a day ; women who make their men 
folk "wear their bedclothes a little longer" dare not 
offer a dinner without dessert ; and the staple dinner 
of fried meat, potatoes, and pie goes on day after day, 
when the farmer, his wife, and his children would be 
better off for a dinner of eggs, potatoes, squash, salad, 
and a bit of jelly for fruit flavor and sweet. The 
most healthful food, fortunately for the farmer's wife, 
is made from materials grown on the farm, and is 
much easier to prepare than fancy baking. It may 
take some time to convince the men folk that clean- 
liness is more important than kinds of food, but it is 
worth trying. Men are generally much more ready 
to take useless or fussy furniture from a living room 
than women, and it is only a matter of months before 
you, too, will find sanitary housekeeping much pleasanter 
and easier than the old-fashioned sort. 

Better standards of living throughout the house 
are worth working for. But while working for them 
we must not forget that the great beauty out of 
doors is, after all, the wellspring of health on the 
farm. The children who run barefooted, bareheaded, 
and care free all summer in fields and pastures never 
suffer from sunstroke, can eat much fruit with safety, 
and do many things the carefully housed children 
cannot. And the mother, in order to meet the great 



GENERAL SCHEME OF LIVING 65 

demands on her strength and nerves, must follow the 
children's example, and gather into herself all the sun- 
shine and healthful repose of the soil that she can. 
Two hours' work in the vegetable garden or among 
the flowers or in the hayfield will often make the 
worries of the house seem very little. Coming in 
from outdoors, the house will seem restful in spite 
of work undone, and the mother is likely to say to 
herself, " I don't believe the men folk know whether 
I swept that room or not." And the probabilities 
are they don't. In the summer, when all are out of 
doors most of the time, the pursuit of dust may well 
be relaxed. It is in the winter, when all are housed, 
that the condition of the cellar, the purity of the air, 
and the dangers in dust force themselves upon our 
attention. 

Eating out of doors has been for me the most 
restful relaxation. A simple meal served on a rough 
table under the apple trees delights the children, rests 
one, and has hearty masculine approval because of 
the evident relief to me. Even a large family can 
easily eat out of doors if there is a piazza fairly near 
the kitchen stove. Some rough seats or old chairs, 
an old table, a tray or two, a tea cozy, and covered 
dishes make it practicable to serve hot dinners on the 
piazza and give every one a new pleasure. 



CHAPTER X 

THE OPPORTUNITY OP' THE CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL 

T T 7K are well aware that these pages assume a skill 
* * of hand in both men and women that is too often 
lacking, and that will not be acquired after middle life. 
To use one's hands and brain together is one of the 
ideals for the future happiness and welfare of mankind, 
and the way to its realization is through the school by- 
practice during the acquisitive years of life. 

The consolidated rural school offers possibilities for 
the requisite early training of hand and eye in wood and 
metal, in color and texture of paint and fiber, which 
may make it feasible to carry out in all homes the sug- 
gestions given here. 

Both boys and girls should have as much wood 
working as will make them independent in the matter 
of simple shelves, doors, and bookcases. While it is 
possible for the boy to learn from his father, the teacher 
should have better tools, more labor-saving devices, and 
above all an aesthetic ideal for even door buttons and 
drawer handles. 

It is also of great advantage to the development of 
tin' girl's character to he obliged to work with a material 
that will neither pucker nor pull. 

A small but effective plane, a sharp chisel, a box of 
screws and one of assorted nails, a set of drills, a screw- 
driver, small saw, hammer, jackknife, and sand paper 

66 



OPPORTUNITY OF THE CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL 6j 

should have their place in the housewife's domain as 
much as needles' and emery ball. 

The elder generation of women often prided them- 
selves on not knowing how to wield saw and screw- 
driver. Perhaps the men were then inclined to be more 
helpful, but today we cannot count on them. When 
they are competent they, as a rule, take the tools out 
of our hands and do the work as they please, not al- 
ways as we would like it done. Closet shelves are 
always too high. 

In any case, there is an intense gratification in being 
able to translate the wish into the fact. It gives a 
sense of power that makes the greatest difference in 
the aspect of life. It gives a feeling of control, a will- 
ingness to attack problems with a reasonable assurance 
of getting them done. 1 

Therefore let there be a well-equipped workshop in 
the consolidated school, with drawings, models, and suit- 
able material for substantial construction and decorative 
effects. 

In most of us, appreciation of beauty of form and 
harmony of color must be developed by definite training 
and by the pervasive influence of beautiful surroundings. 
We have been learning that the eye as well as the ear 
may be trained to perceive more and deeper meanings. 
We believe that color has far-reaching mental and moral 
effects. 2 We are sure that a life lived in the midst of 
sham furnishings and make-believe ornaments tends to 
lower moral ideals. Flimsiness has no place in a livable 

x The Country Home, pp. 51-54. The Farmstead, pp. 2-6. 
-The Country Home, pp. 312-317. 



68 THE HEALTHFUL FARMHOUSE 

home. Not as mere luxury, but as a real necessity of 
life, we must have beautiful things about us suggestive 
of ideals. We need something to serve the purpose of 
the old-time sampler, something to bring back that 
former pride in skill which has been so nearly lost. 
A familiarity with samples of textiles, photographs of 
good interiors, a few well-chosen articles of genuine 
suggestiveness, without prohibitive expense, will do 
much toward raising the standard of taste. 

Local loan exhibitions serve a double purpose : to 
educate the people, and to bring out the valuable things 
stored away in chests and closets, often unappreciated 
by their owners. Why should the country farmhouse 
despoil itself of grandfather's clock or grandmother's 
brocade ? What better decorative material will the few 
dollars the collector pays purchase? Besides, the ap- 
propriateness of the old material, to say nothing of the 
spirit of the old life shut up within its very pores, adds 
a value to things in their own place. If a town is so 
new as to have no old things let some one " send back 
home " or ransack the country about, or even secure 
photographs of good designs, small samples of good 
fabrics. Set the young people to studying the qualities 
winch make these articles of value, and spur them on to 
create new designs appropriate to modern life. 

The first and last word on value is the time and 
thought put upon the work. 

Any rural community could find enough treasures to 
start its consolidated school museum, and a few dollars 
a year will secure permanent examples of the more 
important suggestions. 



OPPORTUNITY OF THE CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL 69 

These endeavors will add interest and unity to the 
social relations of the community, and give healthful 
occupation to mind and body without resorting to 
expensive visits to the neighboring city in quest of 
amusement which leaves nothing tangible behind. 

Let us develop the workshop and the loan museum 
in the consolidated rural school. 



NOV 16 1906 



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